The Welsh Assembly Government has been accused of ‘shunting its problems' on to Welsh councils, after a council tax capping announcement. Leader of the WLGA, Cllr Derek Vaughan, slammed local government minister, Dr Brian Gibbons, and said after a poor local government settlement there were only two options for councils – to raise council tax or cut services. He said councils always sought to protect taxpayers, and many would have stayed within a 5% council tax increase, but the minister's announcement had left councils with ‘little room for manoeuvre'. ‘Through the expenditure sub-group process, the assembly government originally agreed that, just to meet growing pressures, councils would need an additional £230m, but even with last week's extra ‘small change', councils would only get an additional £90m,' he said. ‘The assembly government has shunted its problems on to local councils. It says councils need to make savings through efficiencies, but we're already exceeding their efficiency targets. By limiting council tax increases, the assembly government was effectively saying that the only option was to cut services.' Speaking at the Senedd, Dr Gibbons said he expected council tax increases to be ‘reasonable' for households.
